Tuesday’s bitcoin price surge launched BTC as high as $10,750 on Bitstamp, decimating $68 million worth of shorts in the process. | Source: Shutterstock
Bitcoin (BTC) is back in positive territory today. Yesterday’s surge of nearly 8% on Bitstamp saw BTC shoot back past $10,000 and then briefly clip the $10,750 mark on Tuesday.
Most of the cryptocurrency market followed, with only a handful of altcoins in the red.
Bitcoin Price Booms Amid Mammoth Short Squeeze
The bitcoin price clipped the $10,750 mark on Tuesday. | Source: TradingView
While the bulls are celebrating this short term reprisal, the bears are hurting significantly.
This is especially true on the popular Bitcoin margin trading platform, BitMEX, which saw a goliath liquidation of $68 million in bitcoin shorts.
BitMEX $68 million in BTC short liquidations | Source: Coin360
BitMEX has become synonymous with these kinds of liquidations, with the exchange offering an insane 100x leverage.
On June 27, when the bitcoin price rose to $14,000 after an 18% pump, BitMEX saw a monolithic $500 million short liquidation in 24 hours.
> $500 mln liquidated in last 24h – mostly on the sell side.
Longs could be more leveraged than shorts as some shorts might be used without leverage to create synthetic dollars. pic.twitter.com/ER8iYmk2nz
— skew (@skew_markets) June 27, 2019
Although the initial rise was likely responsible for the decimation of the bitcoin short contracts, their liquidation was also plausibly the cause for at least part of the BTC pump.
Whenever an asset sees a rise of this magnitude, the market often triggers what is known as a short squeeze, in which many of the short-sellers cover their position by setting buy orders that execute as short positions close.
Crypto Market Rally or Dead Cat Bounce?
For some time now, a few analysts have been fairly bearish on Bitcoin’s short term outlook as it fell below a long term trendline which was providing support.
This sentiment has now apparently shifted, with experts such as veteran trader Peter Brandt noting that bitcoin may have entered its fourth parabolic phase.
Possibility that $BTC has entered fourth parabolic phase https://t.co/q4nAgkVJff pic.twitter.com/PL2LQ4ANOY
— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) September 1, 2019
Brandt is particularly bullish on BTC this year, accurately forecasting bitcoin’s resurgence prior to April’s $1,000 candle – which for some, marked the end of the bear season.
Prominent investor Raoul Pal also noted the bearish sentiment around the cryptocurrency community, suggesting that bitcoin was rising despite negative opinions.
If you don’t have any bitcoin $BTC #bitcoin then this looks like the last time to board the rocket ship…
I LOVE wedge patterns like this. They have a high probability of success.
Good luck. There is a “shit ton” going on in macro land. pic.twitter.com/tmNzxkcgTQ
— Raoul Pal (@RaoulGMI) September 1, 2019
With or without the backing of the community and with global economic uncertainties boiling over, BTC could be primed to keep grinding higher.
Click here for a real-time bitcoin price chart.
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